This Wellness Holiday Was Designed for Your Tight Hips and Sore Backs

Me and my left hip have fallen out. Having taken its mobility for granted for 30 plus years, it’s decided enough is enough – and now it pinches. Not all the time but in certain positions – like mid-way through single leg stretch for example, or sometimes in rest pose. Which, for someone who likes to practice Pilates, albeit not life threatening (I hope), is annoying.

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But you know, times are busy, so getting it seen to has sort of slipped down and down my to-do.

Replace the word ‘hip’ with ‘back’ / ‘knee’ / ‘shoulder’ / ‘pick a body part’ and, chances are, I’m describing you, too – because body pain is fast becoming an epidemic with 80% of people experiencing back pain alone at some point in their lives.

What do you do about it? Well, like me, you could carry on regardless and hope it will just go away. Like me, too, you could see your local GP – and pretend to do the one-size-fits-all NHS prescription exercises (as I said, times are busy). Or you could take control of your pain once and for all, by signing up for a life-changing (and that adjective really is justified; read on to find out why) wellness retreat that’s set to make preventative therapy the norm.

What’s the promise?

Restore and Reform (R&R) is founded on personal experience. Director and co-founder Lucy Nifontova, suffered from debilitating back pain for two decades before undergoing spinal surgery.

Body pain is fast becoming an epidemic - it's time we took a preventative approach

As part of her recovery, Nifontova realised she needed some time away from the daily grind – but, unable to miss out on her rehab programme, found her options limited; there’s not many a hotel that can provide on-site physio, bespoke Pilates and soft tissue therapy.

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So, Nifontova gathered together a high calibre team to offer other people in her situation just that. The four programmes now offered by R&R aim to recondition the body following surgery, cancer, childbirth or simply a sedentary lifestyle, and are all co-ordinated by co-founder and expert physiotherapist Michelle Lewis.

The promise? To offer regular (on some programmes, daily) doses of physio, Pilates and soft tissue massage, 100% tailored to the needs of the individual – ie you. Over the course of the retreat, be it three or seven days, expect noticeable results; they’ve already helped three people swerve spinal surgery, for starters, and helped a 22-year-old strengthen up for the London marathon.

A typical day at a Restore & Reform retreat

I’m lucky if I can fit in a 15-minute Pilates order when I’m back in Blighty so my body was literally singing at the thought of some daily TLC. The number of daily sessions varies depending on which programme you’re on but expect to have a minimum of three hours of something – be it physio, Pilates, soft tissue massage or stretching – per day. For example:

08:00: Restore class

09:00: Breakfast

10:00: Physiotherapy

11:00: Reformer Pilates

12:00-15:00: Chill time

15:00: Soft tissue massage

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16:00: Chill time

17:00: Stretch session

18:00: Chill time and dinner

Obviously, convalescing means having time out to recover, so there’s plenty set aside to relax on a sun lounger by the hotel pool, go swimming – an excellent restorative, low-intensity workout – or visit the Ayurvedic spa, where access to the hydrotherapy pool is part of the deal. Treatments are extra – but with all the soft tissue therapy you’ll be having as part of your R&R retreat, you won’t need any massage; go straight for an Elemis facial – I did and afterwards I looked like I’d been reborn.

And the therapies…

Expect quality.

In the decades that Nifontova experienced back pain, she saw her fair share of sub-standard practitioners – so her bar for R&R is set high.

Lewis heads up physio, Abigail Smith works wonders with her soft tissue therapy, and Nifontova, following her own journey with reformer Pilates, has recently qualified with Stott. Oh, and between them, they’ve got some of the world’s leading surgeons and consultants on speed-dial.

Restore & Reform sessions are tailored to the unique needs of the individual

So how does it work? It all begins with an assessment with Lewis – over the phone before your arrival, and in person at the hotel. Every session is then designed around that so it’s bespoke. In the morning Restore session, led by Lewis, for example, all four of us present were doing different exercises; because all of our bodies needed different things.

I became quickly aware that all the little details about my niggling hip were being carefully and lovingly handed over between the team. The motto at R&R is that pain is personal and should be treated that way – and it really was.

Sessions on the reformer are all one-to-one and Nifontova is a Ninja when it comes to correcting squiffy alignment – which for me, was my stubbornly pronating ankles.

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@engineered.well

Exercises that brought on my hip impingement were all replaced with equally strengthening alternatives and, in the sunset Stretch session each evening – a chance to breath in the fresh air and the view, and to reflect on your body’s progress and achievements of the day – Smith made sure all the areas of tightness she’d discovered in her one-to-ones, were targeted and nourished.

Food notes

Set aside plenty of time to fuel up – rest and rehab is hard work. For breakfast, my go-to was the egg station and a dose of poached eggs on toast, plus one of the daily-changing vitamin-packed juices. There’s also a ‘Superfood Corner’ for an additional wellness kick or at the other end of the spectrum, heaped plates of Portuguese custard tarts.

Lunch on freshly caught and grilled fish from the hotel's Ria Restaurant then, for dinner, I recommend eating out – seek out a bowl of monkfish stew; follow it with a chaser of home-brew ‘Fire Water’ and you’ll leave, one of the locals.

The hotel gym

Ample. Think all the standard gym equipment, free weights and a daily programme of exercise classes to choose from. There are also Kilner jars of dried figs and nuts to power up with pre or post.

Would rather fresh air? Then hire a bike from the hotel or go for a run, which leads me on to…

A local running route to try

The area obviously caters for tourists so linking the hotel to the nearby beach is a network of cycle tracks and pathways to follow. You can’t really get lost – although there are quite a lot of roundabouts to navigate. Run one way; get the hotel shuttle back – this retreat is all about convalescing, after all.

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My insider tip

Give yourself permission to relax. I sadly was working in my chill time – which is a common complaint for many of us nowadays. Support the treatments on your R&R programme by dosing up on vitamin D in the sunshine, catching some zzz under a warm breeze on a sun-lounger, or doing a gentle couple of lengths in the pool. Your body is for life; let those emails wait.

Your body is for life; those emails can wait.

What to pack

Whatever you need to totally chill out – you’ll need gym kit (think leggings) for the Pilates and stretch sessions, and loose clothing for your physio but, other than that, it’s up to you how much you want to glam it up in the evenings.

Refillable water bottle

A stack of books – or a well-stocked Kindle

Sunglasses

Shorts for physio and gym kit

How to book a Restore & Reform retreat

Restore and Reformretreats start from £1,300 pp in Portugal (based on 6 day programme, 7 nights room share with two people doing the programme) and from £625 pp at Fair Oak Farm, UK (based on 3 day programme with two people doing the programme.

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